Flexible piezoelectric energy harvester/sensor with high voltage output over wide temperature range

This paper presents a folded nonlinear electro-magneto-mechanical (EMM) vibration-based piezoelectric energy harvester system, which is built on the cantilevered beam structure and consists of one host beam and two substrate plates. The performance of the linearity and nonlinearity to the proposed EMM system is evaluated and compared. Moreover, the voltage response in time history and the phase portrait are studied under an external rectifier circuit with a resistor. The results show that the nonlinearity of the reported EMM system changes the coherent resonance vibration mode from single to double under a harmonic base excitation within the frequency range of 20 Hz–50 Hz. Meanwhile, the substrate plate D contributes more averaged voltage output at a lower frequency while the substrate plate A contributes the voltage output at the relatively higher frequency for the nonlinear EMM system. The experimental study indicates that the proposed nonlinear EMM vibration-based piezoelectric energy harvester can yield a total voltage of 8.133 [email protected] Hz while the baseline structure only produces 1.724 [email protected] Hz. In addition, the bandwidth range of high-power output is enlarged by the nonlinear EMM system, which makes this device more flexible and applicable to absorb the wasted vibration energy generated by industrial machines and public facilities.

Download Full-text

Input-dependent performance study of a nonlinear piezoelectric energy harvester

Journal of Intelligent Material Systems and Structures ◽

10.1177/1045389x16651156 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 28 (5) ◽

pp. 619-626 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Wei Deng ◽

Ya Wang

Keyword(s):

Root Mean Square ◽

Principal Components ◽

Energy Harvester ◽

Amplitude Ratio ◽

Principal Component ◽

Magnetic Interaction ◽

Mean Square ◽

Performance Study ◽

Piezoelectric Energy ◽

Voltage Output

This work reports an input-dependent performance study of a nonlinear piezoelectric energy harvester with introduced magnetic interaction. The performances of the novel harvester with two external magnet arrays (I and II) are compared. Array II that has symmetric magnetic force yields better voltage output under frequency sweep test. As such, the energy harvesting capacity with Array II is performed under two vibration inputs (I and II). Under excitation Input I with periodic varying frequency, experimental results show that the nonlinear piezoelectric harvester outperforms its linear counterpart (no magnetic interaction) at alternating input bandwidths. A 104.5% improvement of root mean square voltage output (318.2% of power output) is obtained under excitation of 0.334 g (root mean square) and bandwidth of 7 Hz. No advantage is observed under Input II consisting of one principal and finite non-principal components. However, detailed study indicates that the amplitude of the principal component and the amplitude ratio of the non-principal components to the principal component in Input II are essential to maintain large-amplitude periodic motion. Our work provides useful insights into the design, characterization, and application of nonlinear energy harvesters with external magnetic forces based on a priori knowledge of input.

Download Full-text